José Alberto Carbonell has been the current president of the Port of Barcelona since October 31, 2024. A civil engineer specializing in roads, canals, and ports, he graduated from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and furthered his education with an MBA from EADA Business School and an Advanced Management Program (PADE) from IESE Business School. His career at the Port Authority of Barcelona began in 1991, where he held various positions until being appointed general manager in January 2009. During his tenure, he has played a key role in the transformation and modernization of the port, notably his involvement in organizing the America's Cup in Barcelona. In 2022, he received the Medal for Professional Merit awarded by the College of Civil Engineers.
Interview from CruisesNews magazine no. 72 – March 2025
How do you assess the evolution of cruise activity at the Port of Barcelona in recent years, and what have been the main challenges the port has faced in relation to cruise traffic?
The Port of Barcelona is the European and Mediterranean leader in homeport traffic, meaning the port where cruise passengers begin and/or end their journeys—the segment that contributes the most to the city's revenue. We continue working to transform transit cruises into ships where Barcelona also serves as a homeport for some passengers, thus strengthening its leadership as a port of embarkation and disembarkation for tourists. This achievement is not the result of chance, but rather the work of many years by our Cruise Department in collaboration with other city entities and cruise lines. In this respect, we believe the overall assessment is positive. Although, of course, there is still room for improvement.
Another major challenge, arguably the greatest, we have faced has been environmental sustainability, not only for cruise ships but for the entire maritime and port industry in general. In the case of cruise ships, we first began promoting the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a transition fuel, given that it is less polluting than other fossil fuels used in shipping. Then we initiated the Nexigen project for the electrification of docks, enabling us to supply clean energy to ships berthed in our port.
Among all the environmental sustainability projects, the most important is OPS's Nexigen project. What is the current status of the dock electrification project, which will allow cruise ships and other vessels to connect to the electrical grid and reduce emissions in port? What are the estimated timelines for full implementation?
The global climate emergency is a reality that the Port of Barcelona is very aware of, and that is why we have been developing a robust environmental policy since the 1990s. Environmental sustainability is one of the three pillars of our Fourth Strategic Plan, as we firmly believe that no one can achieve economic growth without reducing the environmental impact of their activities.
For this reason, the Port of Barcelona has become a driving force for the decarbonization of maritime, port, and logistics activities. Together with our Port Logistics Community, we are leading many of the international initiatives aimed at achieving our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, a fundamental commitment for the future of our port operations and for ensuring sustainable growth.
We are working on several fronts: renewable energy production and distribution, the development of new green fuels, and the electrification of docks to supply renewable electricity to ships. This latter project, known as Nexigen, should allow us to achieve a reduction of almost 40% in emissions of pollutants and particulate matter. We are investing over €200 million in this dock electrification. Last year we began connecting container ships, and this year we have already connected the first ferries. The next step will be connecting cruise ships. We expect to achieve this by 2026.
Several studies have demonstrated the positive impact of cruise tourism on Barcelona's economy, but this aspect doesn't seem to fully convince the local community. What remains to be done?
Tourism management is not the responsibility of ports, and therefore it's not up to the Port of Barcelona to dictate what other public administrations should do. That said, the Port of Barcelona was the first to rigorously address the potential negative externalities of cruise ships, and the agreement reached in 2018 with the Barcelona City Council has served as a guide for other Mediterranean ports.
We have worked with the City Council and Barcelona Tourism to reduce these potential negative externalities and highlight the positive contributions of this type of tourism. For example, cruise traffic has been key to increasing and consolidating direct international connections from Barcelona Airport to destinations such as the United States. And cruise passengers are the only tourists who pay the tourist tax without staying in the city.
Cruise traffic has been key to increasing and consolidating direct international connections at Barcelona Airport
Cruise ship passengers typically fit the profile of family-oriented, respectful tourists, with above-average spending in the city and far removed from problematic tourist profiles. It's crucial to continue explaining the realities of this tourism segment very clearly.
Of the 3.6 million passengers who pass through the port, the number of passengers embarking or disembarking (or both) in Barcelona is increasing—more than 1 million—and for that reason, they stay in the city for varying lengths of time, arriving by plane, etc. Do you think the local community understands that cruise traffic has brought other benefits, such as the creation of new air routes from Barcelona?
At this point, I would like to explain and clarify these figures. By international convention, homeport cruise passengers are counted upon embarkation and disembarkation. That is, when a cruise passenger begins and ends their trip in Barcelona, this person appears twice in the port's accounting. In the case of ports like ours, where homeport cruise passengers are the majority, this method of counting passengers significantly inflates traffic figures, and sometimes this number is automatically attributed to city visits, when we must remember that cruise passengers only visit the city either at the beginning or end of their cruise.
If we use the 2024 figures as a reference, the 2,048,426 homeport cruise passengers we have registered are actually only 1,024,213 people. In other words, if we count people, cruise passenger traffic in the Port of Barcelona totaled 2,631,768 people in 2024.
In a city like Barcelona, which, according to some studies, receives over 60 million visitors annually, the impact of two and a half million people is quite relative. According to our calculations, cruise ship passengers represent around 5% of all tourists visiting the city. I'm not saying whether that's a lot or a little, but the data needs to be put into context.
How do you think the cruise sector in Barcelona will evolve in the coming years? Is a change expected in the profile of cruise passengers or in the demand for services within the port?
In general, Barcelona tourists are evolving towards a higher-quality traveler profile with greater purchasing power. There are increasing numbers of tourists attending congresses, conventions, and trade fairs, as well as tourists interested in culture and gastronomy. This is demonstrated by the data available from Barcelona Tourism and the 2024 report prepared by the Hotel Association.
This general trend among tourists visiting Barcelona is also reflected in cruise ship passengers. We are seeing an increase in calls from small and medium-sized ships, which are more sustainable and committed to greater integration with destinations, offering personalized excursions and longer stays. By 2025, these types of ships will account for 26% of port calls, representing a 40% increase compared to last year.
How do you see the port in the next 5 years?
With all cruise activity concentrated at the Adossat dock and with docked ships operating on renewable energy supplied through the electrical grid, thus eliminating their emissions.
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